ARTICLES ABOUT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION BY DATE - PAGE 3

District Attorney John Morganelli said Thursday he probably will interview Northampton County Councilman Ron Angle and request financial documents to decide whether to launch a criminal probe into recent bond transactions. Angle asked for the investigation Wednesday into transactions made by the county and Bethlehem. "That sounds reasonable," Angle said Thursday of Morganelli's request. "I don't have a problem with that." But some Bethlehem officials said Thursday that a probe was unnecessary, while Angle's fellow council members appeared indifferent to it. Angle questions fees paid to consultants, brokers and attorneys involved in the financial deals.

The Packer Township man who alerted Carbon County commissioners to eight untaxed buildings owned by a businessman in Banks Township says he has found another building owned by the same man that was not on the rolls. Jim Dulcey also told the commissioners at their meeting Thursday that a person in the county planning office, whom he did not identify, knew the buildings weren't on the tax rolls. Dulcey demanded a criminal investigation. But Commissioner Chairman William O'Gurek told Dulcey the county's review has found no criminal wrongdoing.

Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin has asked Northampton County Court to excuse St. Luke's Hospital from providing documents involving his investigation of critical care nurse Charles Cullen to the attorney of a family suing the hospital. Martin filed the request to block disclosure of the documents in a civil case filed by relatives of Marilyn J. Hall, 66, of Phillipsburg, who died in November 2001 following heart surgery at St. Luke's. John Vivian, the Easton attorney representing Hall's children, Robert and Leslie Hall, asked St. Luke's in a discovery request to turn over all Cullen-related documents it provided to any government authority, the Lehigh County coroner and district attorney or police organization.

The day after Bethlehem settled the John Hirko Jr. civil rights lawsuit, City Council and residents Tuesday grilled Mayor John Callahan over the $7.89 million payout. Confusion over what the city agreed to in the settlement prompted Councilman Robert Donchez to ask how the plaintiffs' attorney, John Karoly Jr., could be asking the U.S. attorney to see if federal criminal civil rights charges can be filed against one of the police officers who shot at Hirko. The settlement prevents the plaintiffs -- Hirko's fiancee, landlord and parents -- from pursuing more civil litigation.

Bedminster Township supervisors suspended their police chief without pay Wednesday night, saying he falsified police records and was insubordinate numerous times. The indefinite suspension of Chief Robert Glosson comes after Supervisor Morgan Cowperthwaite and township solicitor John Rice conducted a lengthy investigation on a tip last year that he was violating Bedminster's code of police conduct, Rice said. Glosson, 61, was hired in October 1995 to bring stability to a department ailing from the suspension and resignation of former Chief David Stevens.

A judge granted immunity from federal prosecution Tuesday to a Bethlehem police informant who's worried that he would incriminate himself by testifying in the John Hirko Jr. trial. But U.S. District Judge James Knoll Gardner declined to order John Neison IV to testify, unless the defense obtains immunity from state prosecution for him. Neison refused to testify last week in the civil rights and wrongful death trial, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Officials of the Towamencin Township condominium community where a 4-year-old quadruplet died a week ago have asked residents to help the boy's family and prevent anything similar from happening again. On Thursday, management for the Morgandale Condominium Association sent a letter to each home in the community expressing sorrow for the family of Shawn Seymore, who lived in a two-bedroom, second-story condominium with his parents, four siblings, five dogs and three cats. "The death of Shawn Seymore demonstrates how fragile we are as individuals, families and as a community," read the letter residents found on their front doors Thursday morning.

Two officers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Easton branch have resigned from the executive board, claiming the organization is ignoring their requests to look into possible financial irregularities. Treasurer Beverly M. Hannah and Life Membership Chairman James M. Edwards, both of Palmer Township, said they will remain members of the chapter. But they said they don't want to serve as executive officers because the organization would not produce records of certain expenses from a youth competition and donations from two fund-raisers this year.

Montgomery County Commissioner Chairman Michael Marino called Thursday for a criminal investigation into a fellow county official and fellow Republican, saying he suspects Prothonotary William Donnelly misappropriated funds. Marino said he would ask District Attorney Bruce Castor to look into the way Donnelly has spent money on trips for himself and other courthouse officials to places including Las Vegas and New Orleans in recent years. Donnelly, who was at the commissioners meeting when Marino spent an hour stating his case against him, said all of the trips were taken to help the prothonotary's office run more smoothly.

The results of a criminal investigation relating to alleged cash shortfalls at the Allentown Municipal Golf Course will be revealed today at a news conference in City Hall. Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin issued a news release late Thursday afternoon announcing the conference. Martin said he would be joined by Mayor Roy C. Afflerbach and City Council President David M. Howells Sr. The mayor said Thursday he does not know what Martin will say. Afflerbach, Martin and Howells met Tuesday morning to discuss the investigation's progress.